“Your mailer inviting constituents to an event without any public purpose is improper, a misuse of taxpayers’ funds and, most critically, illegal,” reads the Feb. 14 letter from Grindle and Bill Mitchell, a lawyer and former president of Orange County Common Cause.

If Steel and Rackauckas do not reimburse taxpayers for “all costs associated with the mailing and the hosting” of the Jan. 27 event, Grindle and Mitchell wrote, they will bring legal action against them, as well as any other supervisor who sent “questionable mailers.”

The legal action will seek to ban all future mailings “that do not directly relate to the elected officials’ duties,” and win taxpayer reimbursement for all mailers the court determines violated the law, they wrote.

Steel did not respond to multiple telephone requests Friday for comment. Rackauckas’ spokeswoman, Michelle Van Der Linden, reiterated her original comment on the mailers.

"Tony was an invited guest by the supervisor. It’s our indication [the] entire process was reviewed by county counsel, and we’re referring any further questions to them," Van Der Linden said.

Grindle has endorsed one of Rackauckas’s opponents, Supervisor Todd Spitzer, in this year’s campaign for District Attorney.

“I don’t like to get involved in endorsements,” Grindle said in a telephone interview, but “with the history of the present district attorney, we definitely need a change in that office.” Mitchell said he hasn’t endorsed or donated to any DA candidates in this race. But he said he is a past donor to Spitzer.

In addition to the letters to Steel and Rackauckas, Grindle also sent a letter to the state Attorney General's Office alleging the DA illegally used public resources for a campaign activity during the event advertised in the mailers.

For the January event, the county spent $5,787.97 to print and send the color postcard to 16,000 voters, according to emails, text messages and video clips reviewed by Voice of OC. Another $250 was spent on food for the up to 50 guests at the Saturday morning coffee. It’s unknown how much in additional costs were spent on county staff salaries for those who worked on the mailer.

Both Steel and Rackauckas are up for re-election this year. Steel previously won by comfortable margins and has over $500,000 in her campaign account.

The spending ramped up just before the June 2016 primary election, then dropped off to nothing for three months, before ramping up again before the November general election. Do stopped sending taxpayer-funded mailers after he won re-election.

The new state law, which Grindle worked with state officials to help pass, bans local government-funded mailers featuring elected officials 60 days before elections. It was approved unanimously by both houses of the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

This year, the black-out periods are April 6 until the June 5 primary, and Sept. 7 until the Nov. 6 general election.

Grindle is a decades-long activist who, among other things, authored Orange County’s 1978 campaign finance law, known as TIN-CUP (Time Is Now, Clean Up Politics) which was approved by voters and limits the amount of campaign money county candidates can accept from donors.

In a Voice of OC podcast last week, Grindle, who also convinced the Board of Supervisors to put a county ethics commission proposal on the ballot, said the commission only can deal with county laws and the Steel and Rackauckas mailer falls under state law.

She sent a letter and flash drive Feb. 6 to state Attorney General Xavier Becerra arguing Rackauckas crossed the line during the Costa Mesa coffee when he allegedly gave a student his DA’s office business card and told him to call his government office for instructions on how to get involved in his re-election campaign.

The man, who identified himself as a California State University, Fullerton, student, recorded video as he asked Rackauckas how he could get involved in election campaigns, according to a clip reviewed by Voice of OC.

Rackauckas advised him to contact the various campaigns, according to the video. The man asked how he could get involved in Rackauckas’ campaign.

Rackauckas reached into his pocket and appeared to hand over a card. “That number is [directly] to my office, so uh – so call – you’ll talk to my assistant, Vickie. And, uh, let her know. And she won’t be able to do anything, but she’ll make sure that…that we get that and we get it…to the right people.”

The young man asked how to find out more about Rackauckas’s campaign platform and Rackauckas told him the address for his campaign website, ocdistrictattorney.com.

Grindle and Mitchell wrote in their letter: “It is obvious that Rackauckas was advising the student that the way to work on his campaign was to contact his county employee at his county office. This is in direct conflict with the intent of Govt. Code Section 8314 which expressly prohibits state and local elected officials to use or permit others to use public resources for a campaign activity.”

Their letter concluded: “In order to avoid this occurring again, could your agency issue a warning letter to Rackauckas informing him of this ethical violation?”

Grindle said Friday she hasn’t heard from the AG’s office and no one from the attorney general's news media office returned message late Friday afternoon from Voice of OC.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter Tuesday told county and city officials to hurry up and find short-term shelter for the hundreds of homeless people facing eviction from the Santa Ana riverbed. They did.

County lawyers and staff met in a courthouse conference room most of Tuesday afternoon and responded with a tentative, verbal agreement to supply 400 motel vouchers for homeless people. If that isn’t enough for everyone still on the riverbed, the agreement would allow 300 to 400 more to be sheltered on vacant county land.

The tentative agreement would go into effect before next Tuesday, Feb. 20 and Carter said if the county comes up with the 400 vouchers, it could resume evictions that day. He said he doubted all 400 vouchers would be needed. The initial verbal agreement didn’t mention whether homeless people with pets could take them to the motels or whether they could take all of their belongings.

The lawyers and staff began meeting in the courthouse again at 6 p.m. Tuesday to hammer out a written agreement.

“Something is going to happen very quickly here,” Carter said during the morning of an informal federal court hearing on whether the county should be allowed to continue evicting about 400 homeless people from the riverbed. “It’s going to be hours. It’s not going to be days.”

The judge said he planned to visit the riverbed himself early Wednesday.

Carter issued a temporary ban against the riverbed evictions Feb. 6, after county officials said they planned to increase eviction efforts.

At Tuesday’s hearing, where no one was sworn in to give official testimony, Carter said county officials will be allowed to clear out the riverbed camp “but I have the power to make sure that they’re treated humanely.”

He said he expected a short-term fix to be in place within 72 hours or by the weekend.

“We’re going to move quickly, either by court order or your good graces as the Board [of Supervisors],” Carter told Andrew Do, the board’s chairman.

“I think that the leadership has to come from the Board (of Supervisors,)” he added later.

Progress was underway Tuesday morning, according to Santa Ana and county officials. Representatives from both said they were in talks to use three acres of land at an unspecified location to set up temporary homeless shelter.

Orange County has a shortage of overnight shelter beds but if homeless people leave the riverbed they can be arrested for sleeping outdoors because cities have anti-camping ordinances.

Carter called for leadership on the issue from the county Board of Supervisors, which he said is sitting on an “egregious” amount of money that could be spent to address homelessness.

In 2015 Voice of OC broke the story that the county had $220 million in unspent state mental health services funds. That amount grew to $256 million last June, but there's no known update on the fund level since then.

Carter twice played video of Supervisor Todd Spitzer telling the Anaheim City Council in September that “the county has hundreds of millions of dollars to spend to assist the homeless and it has not spent those monies. That's shameful.”

He repeatedly pressed Susan Price, the county worker in charge of homeless services, for details on $700 million in federal tax money the county reportedly has on hand for homeless-related issues.

“Your problem is a movement of a thousand or more people,” Carter said told Price at one point. “Do you have vouchers? Do you have the ability to get these people food? Yes or no.”

“I believe food can be provided,” Price said.

Replied Carter: “‘I believe,’ that’s the way police officers talk -- ‘to the best of my recollection,’ I used to teach that nonsense. Now let’s do it again. Do you have vouchers to get these people food? Not ‘I believe.’ Do you or not? And how long can you feed these people if they’re moved.”

Said Price, “It would come in the form of vouchers, but I -- yes. I do believe food can be provided to the population.”

Carter asked how long the county could afford to feed the people, but Price couldn’t answer.

“Then why’s the federal government giving you money?” Carter asked.

Price, whose official title is director of care coordination, said the federal Continuum of Care funding can’t be used for food, but only for “rapid rehousing and transitional housing.”

“Well,” said the judge, “look at your own figures. I’m not being harsh on you but it’s time for action now. We’re done with the paperwork. We’re done with chipmunking this money...an accumulation of $700 million. I’m wondering why this money couldn’t have been spent earlier to alleviate this problem. Not solve it. Alleviate it.”

Carter said while the county and cities are working out a plan, the ban on evictions at the riverbed should remain. “I don’t want the river changed,” he said.

He previously toured the riverbed camp four times last year as he presided over a different lawsuit filed by the same attorneys in this case, Brooke Weitzman and Carol Sobel.

Carter’s temporary order last week banned enforcement of trespassing, camping and loitering laws as a means of eviction, while still allowing law enforcement to continue probation enforcement and to arrest people for felony violations.

Tuesday’s hearing was attended by dozens of local officials, advocates, and journalists, prompting the need for an overflow room that was itself packed. Those in the overflow area watched video of the court proceedings.

Carter told the government officials “...if people are going to be moved, I am looking for -- those people who are willingly able to be moved and want to be moved -- that they’ve got food and a place to stay and they’re simply not going to be cited by law enforcement doing their duty and then shuffled into the court for one day credit for time served because they can’t pay their fine.

“And then back into the community, where you have to re-cite them again, and then back into the court and back out.

“You folks have better things to do. And if you don't have the answers, I’m not being disrespectful, find them for me. I’m tired of seeing 15 people answer one question.”

Spencer Custodio is a Voice of OC reporter who covers south Orange County and Fullerton. You can reach him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org.

Contact Thy Vo at tvo@voiceofoc.org or follow her on Twitter @thyanhvo.

Nick Gerda covers county government and Santa Ana for Voice of OC. You can contact him at ngerda@voiceofoc.org.

]]>https://voiceofoc.org/2018/02/federal-judge-tells-county-and-cities-to-move-quickly-on-temporary-riverbed-homeless-aid/feed/116,000 Voters Invited By Mail to Meet Steel and Rackauckas, But There Only Was Room for 50https://voiceofoc.org/2018/02/16000-voters-invited-by-mail-to-meet-steel-and-rackauckas-but-there-only-was-room-for-50-people/
https://voiceofoc.org/2018/02/16000-voters-invited-by-mail-to-meet-steel-and-rackauckas-but-there-only-was-room-for-50-people/#commentsTue, 06 Feb 2018 02:05:38 +0000https://voiceofoc.org/?p=466153Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel used county taxpayer funds to mail postcards featuring her name and District Attorney Tony Rackauckas to 16,000 voters, inviting them to a morning coffee Steel’s staff knew only could handle 50 people, according to emails, text messages and video clips reviewed by Voice of OC.

“The venue of the coffee cannot really hold more than 50 people,” Steel consultant Tyler Diep wrote in a Jan. 12 email to a county official. Diep also is a Westminster city councilman and a candidate this year for the state Assembly.

About $5,800 in county taxpayer funds were used to print and mail the color postcards, which were sent to 16,000 voters based on age and geographic location, according to the emails.

“The disparity between the number of people who were invited and the number of people who could actually attend does make it look like it’s more about blanketing people with an electoral mailer than actually meeting people,” said Jessica Levinson, an election law professor at Loyola Law School and the president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.

At the same time, she said the spending doesn’t appear to cross the line into illegality.

“I think they would make the argument that this is small because they want an intimate setting to really have an in-depth discourse with constituents, and if the setting’s too big then you miss out on that opportunity,” Levinson said.

“On the other hand you can say, look, this is about an election because you’re inviting 16,000 [people] to a house party. And that’s like inviting a university to an apartment building. I mean it’s just nuts in terms of numbers.”

Asked for comment about concerns the mailers used taxpayer money for re-election purposes, a DA spokeswoman referred comment to Steel’s office.

“Tony [Rackauckas] was asked to attend this event by Supervisor Steel and it is our understanding the mailer and the event details were discussed with county [counsel], so we are referring any questions you may have to the Supervisor’s office,” said the spokeswoman, Michelle Van Der Linden.

Steel didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment Monday through a call to her a cell phone, a text message, and a message with an assistant at her county office.

Steel is asking her Board of Supervisors colleagues Tuesday for funding approval for four more similar events.

Another ethics expert, Tracy Westen, a lawyer formerly with the Center for Governmental Studies, said “if a candidate uses taxpayer money to invite people generally to a forum in which he or she talks, or there’s an opportunity for questions, there may well be an electioneering benefit. But probably the benefit of information for constituents outweighs any downsides.”

Bob Stern, a former chief lawyer for the California Fair Political Practices Commission, said the mailers are “not ideal,” but appears to be allowed within the law when it happens this far in advance of an election.

The postcard invitations went to voters in Steel’s largely coastal 2nd District “based on age and geography,” according to emails reviewed by Voice of OC. The postcards describe the event as a “community coffee” and ask people to RSVP because of “limited space.”

During the roughly hour-long coffee, Steel spoke for about two minutes, according to a video clip reviewed by Voice of OC.

“This is really just, opening up, you know, who we are. You can just meet person-to-person,” Steel said. “We are just normal human beings. We want to work with you, and, you know, just want to meet everybody…that’s why we are here.”

Rackauckas spoke for about 16 minutes, according to the video, providing a “quick overview” of what the DA’s office does and answering questions from attendees. Both he and Steel mingled with the largely older, white group of attendees.

Both Steel and Rackauckas are up for re-election this year. Steel previously won by comfortable margins and has over $500,000 in her campaign account.

Steel is planing at least four more of the events in coming weeks in Rossmoor, Huntington Beach, and Newport Beach.

Her county budget request does not list a cost for the events, but the bill for the one last month was $250 for food—$5 per person according to the emails—and $5,787.97 to print and mail the color postcards. It’s not clear who designed the cards, though the list of 16,000 recipients was provided to the mail company by Steel’s office, according to the records reviewed by Voice of OC.

Voice of OC has filed a Public Records Act request for the list of 16,000 recipients.

According to the emails, the county counsel’s office said requirements for county-paid mailers prohibited targeting “high propensity voters,” a term for people who vote often.

In his email, Diep said, “due to budgetary concern it is not practical to mail this postcard to EVERY voter in the 2nd District. We intend to mail this invitation to a more selective group of voters based on age and geography. We will not target voters base on partisan registration. We will not target voters based on their likelihood of voting.”

Video of the gathering showed most of those present appeared to be older and white, a demographic that traditionally favors Republicans in Orange County.

A state law was enacted last year largely in reaction to Supervisor Andrew Do having the county spend at least $246,000 in taxpayer money on mailers featuring his name in the run-up to his tight 2016 re-election.

The spending ramped up just before the June 2016 primary election, then dropped off to nothing for three months, before ramping up again before the November general election. Do stopped sending taxpayer-funded mailers after he won re-election.

The new state law bans county government-funded mailers featuring elected officials 60 days before elections. It was approved unanimously by both houses of the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

This year, the black-out periods are April 6 until the June 5 primary, and Sept. 7 until the Nov. 6 general election.

To get the community coffee postcard mailed, Diep had county staff work over a weekend to quickly approve, within four days, the Garden Grove-based printing company dtn.tech as a county vendor, rather than using a previously authorized vendor.

According to emails, Beth Holder, manager of the county’s community events,told Diep at 10:20 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 5, that dtn couldn’t do the mailing because it wasn’t registered as a county vendor.

“This will require the documents listed and take some time,” Holder wrote. “...As this mailer needs to go out, I suggest we move forward with our contracted vendor and begin the process of registering the outside vendor for future projects.”

But 11 minutes later, Diep sent her an email asking for all of the forms that needed to be signed, and added, “maybe there was a breakdown of communication somewhere between us but all the paperwork could have been resolved last month or even earlier.”

On Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 6 and 7), other staff sent Holder emails saying they had received the dtn paperwork.

“... All set. DTNTech may begin work...,” county parks department purchasing staffer Diana Lin wrote to Holder that Sunday. Holder notified Diep on Monday morning “that their vendor could begin the work on this job.”

Toward the end of the Steel-Rackauckas coffee, a man who identifies himself as a California State University, Fullerton, student recorded video as he asked Rackauckas how he could get involved in campaigns.

Rackauckas advised him to contact the various campaigns, according to the video. The man asked how he could get involved in Rackauckas’ campaign.

Rackauckas reached into his pocket and appeared to hand over a card. “That number is [directly] to my office, so uh – so call – you’ll talk to my assistant, Vickie. And, uh, let her know. And she won’t be able to do anything, but she’ll make sure that…that we get that and we get it…to the right people.”

The young man asked how to find out more about Rackauckas’s campaign platform and Rackauckas told him the address for his campaign website, https://ocdistrictattorney.com/

Nick Gerda covers county government and Santa Ana for Voice of OC. You can contact him at ngerda@voiceofoc.org.

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]]>https://voiceofoc.org/2018/02/16000-voters-invited-by-mail-to-meet-steel-and-rackauckas-but-there-only-was-room-for-50-people/feed/23Rising Youth Sexually Transmitted Disease Rates Hit Hard in Santa Ana, Anaheimhttps://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/rising-youth-sexually-transmitted-disease-rates-hit-hard-in-santa-ana-anaheim/
https://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/rising-youth-sexually-transmitted-disease-rates-hit-hard-in-santa-ana-anaheim/#commentsThu, 21 Dec 2017 14:15:43 +0000https://voiceofoc.org/?p=442784At an educational gathering in Santa Ana, a lesson in proper condom use is about to begin, and – warning – this is no place for the prudish, the fainthearted or persons lacking a sense of humor. Teacher Frances Torres begins to pull male appendage facsimiles from her bag, plopping them on the table before her students, ages 13 to 18.

Torres has a relaxed, maternal manner well suited for the class underway. She is certified in teaching young people about sexual health and has worked in numerous schools and even women’s prisons. At this moment she’s leading a seven-week program called Cuidate, which roughly translates from Spanish into “Take care of yourself.” Teens here are first-time juvenile offenders, largely Latino.

Tonight’s assignment is for the students to work in groups to put a condom on properly, following 14 easy and not-so-easy steps. Torres passes out the model genitalia, one to each group of students, along with a condom. Torres’ teaching partner, Susana Espinoza, reminds students that the point is not to encourage them to have sex but to ensure that they do it responsibly if they choose to.

And now it’s on to the 14 steps, starting with making sure the condom is latex and checking the expiration date on the package. The more challenging part is, of course, the later steps.

One group manages to unroll the condom in the wrong direction, prompting it to roll back up and fall off.

“I just put it on backwards,” one youth says dejectedly. “She’s pregnant.”
Torres coaches him to try again, offering instruction in the neutral tone a teacher might use to correct a mistake in a math problem.

Keeping sexual topics matter-of-fact – rather than embarrassing or sordid – seems to be key to the approach at Cuidate, which is a program of the nonprofit organization Project Youth. The goal is to teach teens to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancy while taking into account Latin-American cultural norms.

Disproportionate STI Rates in Santa Ana
STIs (also known as STDs) are surging nationwide to unprecedented highs where they once were at record lows. Half of new cases are among young people, with disproportionate concentrations among minority youth. Santa Ana’s Latino youth population is no exception.

In Santa Ana, the rate (though not the number) of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis diagnoses among 15-19-year-olds in 2016 was considerably higher than for this age group across the county.

Lower-income communities generally have less access to medical care and less information and education about sexual health.

“You expect high STD rates in urban areas, in poverty and lower educational levels,” said Dr. Christopher Ried, medical director for HIV/STD Services of the Orange County Health Care Agency. “It didn’t surprise me that Santa Ana’s rates were higher than the county.”

Another troubling measure is the California Adolescent Sexual Health Needs Index or CASHNI, which targets geographical districts that need more sexual health resources based on traits such as teen birth and STI rates, poverty and other factors.
The 2016 CASHNI score for central Santa Ana is the highest in the county, followed by south Santa Ana and central Anaheim, though these scores were lower than their counterparts in the south Central Valley.

Undetected sexually transmitted infections don’t always cause immediate distress but if left untreated can be dangerous. Chlamydia can cause infertility, HIV can lead to AIDS and syphilis can result in severe birth defects.

Teen pregnancy hits urban Latina teens disproportionately as well. While adolescent births have declined in Orange County since 2004, the vast majority in the OC are to Hispanic mothers.

Resources and Culture
Income and resources aren’t the only reasons for higher rates of STD; culture also plays a part, and Cuidate addresses this issue head on, asking students to consider their cultural influences in new ways.

For example, family and respect for parents are a big part of Latino life, and Cuidate teachers use this value to get students thinking about how hard it would be on their parents if they had to take responsibility for a child’s unplanned pregnancy.

“Family is a beautiful thing in the Latino world – family first,” said Nazley Restrepo, who oversees Cuidate. “But then do I really want to do this to my parents?”

Further, Cuidate teachers Torres and Espinoza work to expand the meaning of clichéd cultural perceptions; for example, defining machismo behavior as a male protecting his partner from disease or unplanned pregnancy – rather than being domineering or what students call a “player.”

Another focus of Cuidate is what Restrepo calls “negotiation skills,” which are important for young women who lack the confidence to ask their partner to use a condom.

One of the class’s more outspoken students on this matter was Sarah, 18, who is biracially white and Latina. In class she defended the right of a female to carry a condom in her purse, even as one young man in the class said that doing so reflects poorly on a girl.

After class ended, Sarah confided that she was only 130 days out of rehabilitation for meth addiction. Drug use led her to have multiple sexual partners over the years, and she feels grateful that she didn’t get pregnant or contract an STI.

In those days, “Even if he wanted to use a condom I said, ‘No, you don’t have to’ because I was afraid I would lose the guy,” she said. “Now that I’m sober I’m realizing I shouldn’t lower myself for anyone.” She is learning how to approach relationships more slowly.

Meanwhile, she has found the Cuidate classes informative and like many other students interviewed, said they imparted information that was new to them.

Cuidate isn’t the only outreach effort in Orange County. RADAR, an organization focusing on the health needs of Latino men in Orange County, does free HIV testing outside of LGBT clubs and at social events such as drag shows.

“The stats are jarring,” said Manny Muro of RADAR. “One in four Latino men who have sex with men will contract HIV in their lifetime. That’s why I got into this work. I’m a gay Latino man and it’s affecting my community at an increased rate.”

Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino counties and AltaMed Health Services also provide bilingual presenters on sexual health to OC community centers and schools.

Reaching Further
All state schools are required to implement a program of comprehensive, medically accurate lessons in sexual health as a result of the California Healthy Youth Act or CHYA, which passed last year.

CHYA teaches the benefits of abstinence but is not an abstinence-only program, focusing more on sexual health strategies such as STI and pregnancy prevention as well as HIV, LGBT, transgender, domestic violence and human trafficking issues.

Districts in Orange County are complying with CHYA in different ways.
Anaheim school officials revived health class for middle-schoolers and invested in CHYA-compliant curricula. Credentialed health teachers were trained in the new program and can bring in outside speakers to supplement lessons.

Santa Ana schools have fully implemented the new law, using a CHYA-driven curriculum that is taught by high school biology teachers who were trained in it. Students usually take biology in the 9th grade and need it to graduate.
But Santa Ana wants to get an earlier start.

“We will be expanding it next school year to 7th-graders,” said Deidra Powell, communications officer at Santa Ana Unified School District. “We need to get them early and educate them before they make poor decisions.”

Amy DePaul is community health editor at Voice of OC. She can be reached at adepaul@voiceofoc.org.

]]>https://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/rising-youth-sexually-transmitted-disease-rates-hit-hard-in-santa-ana-anaheim/feed/15Fullerton’s New Fox Development Plan Could Incur Added Costshttps://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/fullertons-new-fox-development-plan-could-incur-added-costs/
https://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/fullertons-new-fox-development-plan-could-incur-added-costs/#commentsThu, 21 Dec 2017 14:13:05 +0000https://voiceofoc.org/?p=443167Fullerton residents will gain a new, at least 200-space, parking structure in the city’s attraction-heavy downtown area, but it might come at a higher price than previously thought – one that could total about $4 million, according to city officials.

The plan to build the structure, which was voted in 3-2 at the Dec. 5 council meeting, is part of a 26-year-old agreement between the city and a nearby restaurant, Angelo and Vinci’s. The agreement requires that a parking structure be added to the area in order to reopen the Fox Theatre, a historic building that has been closed since 1987.

Although the $6.2 million overall cost of the structure is covered by funds from a now-dissolved agency, the new plan includes maintenance of the surrounding area, which City Planner Matt Foulkes estimates could cost an additional $1 million that the city hasn’t yet budgeted for.

Fullerton spent almost $224,000 for parking structure maintenance during the 2014-15 fiscal year, according to the city’s strategic parking plan.

That’s not the only additional cost the new plan could incur – some council members disagreed on whether to add 100 additional spaces to the parking structure, which Foulkes said could cost another $3 million that would potentially be covered by taking out loans.

“We don't want to commit money that we don't have,” Foulkes said in a Dec. 8 interview. “But it's a balancing act that the city council is going to have to perform.”

The city’s 2017-18 adopted budget puts it at a deficit of about $7 million, with its revenue at about $183.1 million and its expenditures at about $190.9 million. About 26 percent of that is allocated for public works.

Mayor Pro Tem Greg Sebourn, one of the dissenting votes, said that while there’s “no way” around building the structure, he disagrees with parts of the voted-in plan, which includes selling two additional parking lots and potentially developing them into office buildings or apartments.

“The residents just don't want any more business space. They don't want anymore residential space,” Sebourn said in a Dec. 12 interview. “I think it's time that we respect the will of the people.”

Sebourn believes that the city should sell the Triangle and Pomona lots “as-is,” rather than designing construction plans and selling the land to private developers with those requirements attached, which is part of the current plan.

“If we raise the value of the land by entitling it with something like apartments, it does raise the value of the land,” Sebourn said. “But is the use of the land for apartments meeting the desire of the public?”

Foulkes said that those who are concerned about the city’s potential use of bonds and loans to fund the additional costs are “absolutely right,” though he believes the plan voted in is the best option for the city.

“There are a number of other hurdles here, one of them is a big one – how do we finance $3 million?” Foulkes said. “But now we know that's the path we're moving forward with ... up until this point, there were kind of a lot of options on the table.”

And although any new parking structure would help alleviate parking issues, Foulkes said, the city takes issue with a concentration of people parking in one area – not an overall lack of parking.

“I want to believe (the structure will help), but the truth of the matter is that most people don't want to walk more than a block,” Foulkes said.

The SOCO Structure, which opened in 2012, is the most recent addition to the city’s downtown parking. Foulkes said that this structure, which sits on the south edge of the downtown area, is more than “half empty most nights,” while the other structures closer to the epicenter of downtown are almost always full.

“A parking structure up by the Fox Block is going to help Angelo and Vinci's, it's going to help people that are going to the Starbucks, or to the Fox Theatre, but I don't know how much it's going to alleviate parking out of the direct vicinity,” Foulkes said.

Foulkes estimates that carrying out the plan will take three to five years.

Rebeccah Glaser is a student journalist at Chapman University participating in the Voice of OC Youth Media program.

]]>https://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/fullertons-new-fox-development-plan-could-incur-added-costs/feed/3Garden Grove Syncs Traffic Signalshttps://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/garden-grove-syncs-traffic-signals/
https://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/garden-grove-syncs-traffic-signals/#commentsTue, 19 Dec 2017 13:47:11 +0000https://voiceofoc.org/?p=442851Day to day commutes might get a little easier for Garden Grove residents following a decision by city council members to adopt traffic light synchronization projects for Garden Grove Boulevard and Katella Street.

“With the traffic delay, also severed is the cost of business, the cost of potential people that can come and shop in Garden Grove,” said Mayor Pro Tem Phat Bui, “And therefore, I think there is a real strong (contingent) for intention-able benefits, 45 minutes each day, 365 days a year add up to a lot more than the city matching fund is.

”I just want to clarify this point to the public, I believe the benefit (of reducing traffic) in terms of financial would be tremendous for merchants in Garden Grove,” he added during the Nov. 28 city council meeting.

The Orange County Transportation Authority issued a call for projects to coordinate traffic signals across jurisdictional boundaries in the county funded under the Comprehensive Transportation Funding Programs. Two corridors, Garden Grove Boulevard and Katella Avenue, were identified as heavily traveled corridors that would benefit from traffic signal coordination.

Traffic signal coordination occurs when a group of two or more traffic signals are working together so cars moving through the group will make the least number of stops possible.

There will be no impact to the Garden Grove General Fund. Public Works will be funding the projects through Traffic Mitigation Fees and Measure M2 Local Fair Share according to Public Works Director Bill Murray.

This is just one transportation improvement Garden Grove has been making steadily since The West County Connectors project was completed in 2014. The project was a partnership between OCTA and Caltrans linking (HOV) lanes/carpool lanes on the San Diego Freeway (I-405) with those on the Garden Grove Freeway (SR-22) and San Gabriel River Freeway (I-605) to create a seamless carpool connection among the three freeways.

“Those streets have been compacted over the years, and that’s why these synchronization projects keep coming up, is as cities develop and there’s new destinations that are created, traffic patterns tend to change,” Murray said. “Also our freeway improvements or even construction works will have a significant impact on traffic patterns.”

New planning theory, coupled with consumer demand for public transit, has brought greater attention to how transportation planning decisions fit into the design of healthy communities. According to Murray, the transportation improvements and specifically, the traffic light synchronization, will have a positive impact on commuters and the city.

“It will move the vehicles along at an orderly pace and with the overlaying hope that they will spend less time stopped. When you reduce the amount of vehicle down-time in terms of being stopped at a signal, you save motorists in terms of gas and you also save them in terms of emissions, so you are not creating as much smog, theoretically,” he said.

The proposed Garden Grove Boulevard project spans approximately 8.6 miles and includes 34 traffic signals. It would begin at Valley View Street in Westminster and end at Bristol Street in Santa Ana. Garden Grove currently has jurisdiction of 20 traffic signals on Garden Grove Boulevard.

The proposed Katella Avenue project spans approximately 19.6 miles and includes 73 traffic signals. It would begin at the I-605 in Los Alamitos and end at Jamboree Street in Orange. Garden Grove currently has jurisdiction of two traffic signals on Katella Avenue.

The City of Garden Grove’s financial responsibility for the two projects is estimated at $464,972, covered by the Traffic Mitigation Fees and Measure M2 Local Fair Share, not the general budget.

“People get excited, you see those large figures,” said Council Member John R. O'Neill. “I just wanted to point out that 464 is not coming out of our general budget - the general plan I should say.”

Both projects will include the development and implementation of signal timing, traffic signal equipment upgrades, and two years of traffic signal timing maintenance. The projects are anticipated to begin September 2018.

Natalie van Winden is a student journalist at Chapman University participating in the Voice of OC Youth Media program.

]]>https://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/garden-grove-syncs-traffic-signals/feed/1To Desalinate or Not to Desalinate: UCI Debate Over Controversial Proposed Huntington Beach Planthttps://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/to-desalinate-or-not-to-desalinate-uci-debate-over-controversial-proposed-huntington-beach-plant/
https://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/to-desalinate-or-not-to-desalinate-uci-debate-over-controversial-proposed-huntington-beach-plant/#commentsMon, 11 Dec 2017 14:34:32 +0000https://voiceofoc.org/?p=439280Academics, advocates and activists met for a panel discussion at UC Irvine to hash out the pros and cons of a proposal to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach, with environmentalists once again warning it would damage marine environments and raise water bills.

“There is nothing simple about desalination,” said panelist Ray Hiemstra, associate director of Orange County Coastkeeper, an environmental organization focused on water quality. Coastkeeper went to court in November to challenge approval for the project granted in October by the State Lands Commission. Additional approvals still need to be secured for construction to begin.

Representing the builder of the Huntington Beach plant, vice president Scott Maloni of Poseidon Water said water bills have only gone up by $4.50 a month in Carlsbad, where a Poseidon desalination plant has been operating for two years.

But not all regional efforts to rely on desalination have proven expedient, some UCI panelists warned.

Professor Newsha Ajami, director of Urban Water Policy at Stanford University, reminded the audience Dec. 6 that Santa Barbara authorities commissioned a desalination plant during a drought in the 1980s, but the drought was over by the time it was built and then it was no longer needed. In 2015, the plant was reactivated at a reported cost of $71 million.

Ajami posed the question: Why pay higher prices for desalinated water on a permanent basis if it’s only needed during the occasional drought?

Maloni countered that, “A drought is not a reason to build a desalination plant.”

Instead, he said, the plant’s chief benefits are providing a reliable source of local water to reduce dependence on imported water. Also, the plant enables water managers to diversify water sources beyond groundwater, storm water and recycling.

One Source Among Many
The $1 billion Huntington Beach site could be expected to provide about 10 percent of the county’s water supply, Maloni said.

While contesting the plant, Coastkeeper does not oppose all desalination projects, Heimstra said. A proposed desalination operation in Dana Point, which would draw from underground sea water and serve an area that imports 90 percent of its water, has not been challenged by Coastkeeper.

But in general, Hiemstra said, desalination should be a “last resort” when other methods are not available or have been exhausted.

“We want conservation, recycling, storm water capture – all these are easier, cheaper things to get done first,” he said.

Conservation, in particular, remains a viable tool in Orange County, where he said 60 percent of Orange County water still goes to landscaping.

In San Diego, “Conservation has been very effective,” said Jeremy Crutchfield, senior engineer for the San Diego County Water Authority. But he added that conservation eventually reaches a limit. The region is now embracing potable reuse, also known as toilet-to-tap, and is pondering a future second desalination plant in Camp Pendleton, he said.

In Huntington Beach, Poseidon’s plant would sit at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Newland Street. According to environmentalists, it would be destructive to fish and their eggs that get sucked into the plant’s intake pipes.

But Maloni said Poseidon technologies will enable compliance with California policy requiring protective measures for marine life.

The Challenges of Maintenance
From an engineering standpoint, the bigger issue is maintenance of the plants, according to panelist Sunny Jiang, a UCI professor and desalination researcher. She said the “reverse osmosis” technology planned for the Huntington Beach plant needs consistent monitoring. Still, she said, “The technology is mature and ready.”

Another concern was whether a second desalination plant in Southern California would spur more localities to turn to desalination, setting back gains in water conservation.

Maloni said that only select locations are viable for desalination plants, so that, “You’re not going to see the coast of California littered with desalination plants.”

In Orange County, the Huntington Beach proposal has become embroiled in a debate about the Latino population’s support for desalination as a water strategy. In 2016, two authors wrote an opinion piece for Voice of OC in which they said a poll by a think tank showed Latinos support the proposed plant in Huntington Beach. But local Latino activists from Huntington Beach contested the validity of those findings in response.

One assumption that hasn’t been questioned by any parties weighing in on the desalination plant is the role of climate change in intensifying the discussions around water sources.

“Climate change is putting extreme pressure on the urban water supply and water cycle,” Ajami said on Wednesday.

Maloni agreed: “It’s getting drier.”

Amy DePaul is community health editor at Voice of OC. She can be reached at adepaul@voiceofoc.org.

]]>https://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/to-desalinate-or-not-to-desalinate-uci-debate-over-controversial-proposed-huntington-beach-plant/feed/14Brea’s Art in Public Places Program Connects Developers and Communityhttps://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/breas-art-in-public-places-program-connects-developers-and-community/
https://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/breas-art-in-public-places-program-connects-developers-and-community/#commentsFri, 01 Dec 2017 13:51:55 +0000https://voiceofoc.org/?p=435033The small city of Brea covers only 12.43 square miles between La Habra in the west and Chino Hills in the east, and is home to just over 40,000 people.

It’s also home to 178 pieces of public art.

“The size of the collection we have is outstanding compared to the size of our community,” Jenn Colacion, the city’s community services specialist, said. “It’s something that Brea is very proud of.”

Brea’s Art in Public Places (APP) program began in 1975 as one of the first collections of public art in the state, Colacion said. The APP program requires developments valued at $1.5 million or more to install art that is worth at least 1 percent of the project’s total value.

The program was inspired by former City Manager Wayne Wedin’s family trip to Europe in the 1970s. Wedin returned to Brea with a new appreciation for public art, which he hoped to implement in Brea, Colacion said.

The most recent additions to the collection are “Nature’s Retreat I” and “Nature’s Retreat II” by artist Karen Heyl, which were commissioned by the Walden Estates on Lambert Road and Sunflower Street this year. The housing development was required to create new art after its original piece was stolen—something that happens often with bronze pieces in the collection, Colacion said.

TERRY SULLIVAN AND DENA SOMMER

"Flora and Fauna" by Marlo Bartels.

In March of this year, developer Shea Homes introduced nine new APP pieces to the Blackstone community. They were all created by Marlo Bartels, an Orange County-based artist whose mosaics can be found all over Southern California.

He said that he is inspired by things in Brea that “may not be obvious.” When creating two seashell-shaped pieces titled “Paleontological” for the Blackstone community, he was inspired by the fact that this part of the city “used to be under water.” He said that he enjoys finding the connection between the community and the art that he creates.

“One of the main purposes of public art is to create community,” Bartels said. “Some of the best public art does just that. It gives people a sense of pride in their community.”

Bartels has created over 10 pieces of art in the city of Brea, including developer-owned APP art and city-commissioned pieces, like the mural at the corner of Lambert Road and State College Boulevard that Bartel created “about eight to 10 years ago.”

While developers that meet the $1.5 million value mark must commission art, Colacion believes that the requirement gives developers a “unique opportunity to connect with the community.”

“I think that art gives the opportunity for people to experience things through other’s eyes. Art is in the eye of the beholder,” Colacion said. “We call it our outdoor art gallery. You can drive down the street and see 10 pieces of art on your morning commute. That’s what makes our diverse collection so great.”

Brea residents Terry Sullivan and Dena Sommer made it their goal to photograph each piece of art in the APP program when they became a couple in 2008. They call it their “adventure.”

“This is really our pet project in retirement,” Sommer said. “We grew up in Brea and think so highly of the city and what it gave us, so we’re sort of giving back.”

The couple now runs their own Brea’s Art in Public Places website, where they catalogue the collection with photographs, locations, and the various artists’ names. The city of Brea plans to use the couple’s photographs and website to promote the APP program, Colacion said.

“These type of people create the excitement about the program in the community,” Colacion said. “Having these advocates for the arts in Brea is what makes our community so special.”

The couple enjoys seeking out public art whenever they travel to other Southern California cities or other states. According to Sullivan and Sommer, Laguna Beach is the only Orange County city that compares to Brea in terms of public art. However, the couple said that Laguna Beach differs because it has “more money and less space for big businesses.”

According to the Laguna Beach Visitors website, there are 79 pieces of public art in their collection—nearly 100 fewer pieces than Brea’s collection. The city’s policy also differs from Brea’s in its requirements. Developers with property worth $225,000 or more must create art that is worth at least 1 percent of the total value.

Newport Beach does not have a public art program similar to Brea’s, but it does have its Sculpture in Civic Center Park Exhibition, which welcomed nine new pieces on Oct. 28. This changing collection features pieces by local artists which are curated by a committee and returned to the artist after about two years, according to the city website.

While Colacion said the city’s limited resources prevent the APP Advisory Committee from creating new ways to promote the program, she said residents like Sullivan and Sommer help the APP program to “remain a strong priority of the city.” Sullivan and Sommer plan to continue their “adventure” through the APP program, which Sommer calls “Brea’s pearl necklace.”

“We’re trying to be evangelicals for the program. People in the city of Brea don’t have any idea that this program exists,” Sullivan said. “The art is hiding in plain sight. We’re trying to educate people.”

Emiko Kaneoka is a student journalist at Chapman University participating in the Voice of OC Youth Media program.

]]>https://voiceofoc.org/2017/12/breas-art-in-public-places-program-connects-developers-and-community/feed/6Nine Sick from Valley Fever at Monterey County Solar Construction Site, One Hospitalizedhttps://voiceofoc.org/2017/11/nine-sick-from-valley-fever-at-monterey-county-solar-construction-site-one-hospitalized/
https://voiceofoc.org/2017/11/nine-sick-from-valley-fever-at-monterey-county-solar-construction-site-one-hospitalized/#commentsMon, 27 Nov 2017 14:24:34 +0000https://voiceofoc.org/?p=434416Editor’s Note: This project results from an innovative reporting venture — the Center for Health Journalism Collaborative — that currently involves The Bakersfield Californian, Radio Bilingüe in Fresno, Valley Public Radio in Fresno and Bakersfield, Vida en el Valle in Fresno, Hanford Sentinel, the Voice of OC in Santa Ana, the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, La Estrella de Tucsón and CenterforHealthJournalism.org. The collaborative is an initiative of the Center for Health Journalism at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. You can read more of this series and the collaborative’s previous work here.

Nine construction workers fell ill to valley fever this year while working on a solar panel project in Monterey County after employers allowed serious lapses in training and safety precautions, according to new information obtained by the Center for Health Journalism Collaborative on the recent outbreak.

Five of those workers laboring at the 2,900-acre California Flats Solar Project in Cholame Hills visited emergency rooms and one was hospitalized, according to a Nov. 7 letter that Barbara Materna, chief of the California Department of Public Health’s Occupational Health branch, sent to the work site’s project managers. The letter’s findings and recommendations came after a whistleblower tipped off the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

That state agency fined six employers at the work site more than $240,000 this week for exposing workers to valley fever without ensuring proper training and safety precautions were in place to minimize workers’ risk of getting infected. At least one of the employers, Papich Construction, had been cited for the same violations in 2013 on another solar panel project.

Valley fever, or Coccidioidomycosis (cocci for short), is caused by a fungus that grows in the soil throughout the Southwestern United States. When disturbed, often through construction and agricultural tilling, fungal spores can become airborne, and when inhaled, cause valley fever.

Valley fever is a punishing disease that induces flu-like symptoms and extreme fatigue. It’s not uncommon for those infected to spend months recovering. Of the eight employees interviewed by the CDPH, seven said they were out sick from work for anywhere between one day and 10 months because of the infection.

All of those infected were diagnosed between August and December 2016, the peak season for valley fever.

Those nine cases — seven of which are confirmed and two probable — bring the rate of infection to between about 852 and 1,171 per 100,000, according to the CDPH letter. That’s roughly three times higher than the rate of infection in Kern County last year, which is in the middle of an epidemic and consistently produces more valley fever cases than anywhere else statewide.

By comparison, the rate of infection in Monterey County in 2016 hovered around 17.5 per 100,000. California’s average rate totaled less than 14 per 100,000.

State public health officials blamed that high rate of infection to lapses in safety precautions at the work site. They recommend that construction workers take common sense precautions in affected areas, including soaking dirt while digging, minimizing hand-digging in favor of heavy equipment with enclosed, air conditioned, HEPA-filtered cabs, and ensuring workers have respirator masks.

Employees interviewed by CDPH said they had access to N95 respirator masks, but some workers, including managers, said they didn’t think those masks were effective.

“Workers reported rarely, if ever, wearing respirators — even those workers in the most high-risk jobs for dust exposure,” Materna wrote.

When public health officials visited the worksite in August they found ample water trucks to soak soil, but workers said that during the first phase of the project, that wasn’t the case.

“There were not enough water trucks to suppress dust, and water trucks were slow to respond when conditions were dusty,” Materna wrote.

Beyond worksite safety lapses, there were inaccuracies in what workers were taught about valley fever, public health officials said. Training materials said there was no way to prevent valley fever, which is not accurate. Those materials also inaccurately taught workers that 30 to 60 percent of people living in endemic areas get valley fever, which public health officials say isn’t a substantiated claim.

At the top of the department’s list of recommendations was the emphasis on the potential for valley fever to be a “severe illness which can lead to death.” It also urged employers to inform employees that cases of valley fever had occurred as a result of employment at the site.

]]>https://voiceofoc.org/2017/11/nine-sick-from-valley-fever-at-monterey-county-solar-construction-site-one-hospitalized/feed/1Irvine City Council Votes to Sue County Over Big Commercial Development Near Great Parkhttps://voiceofoc.org/2017/11/irvine-city-council-votes-to-sue-county-over-big-commercial-development-near-great-park/
https://voiceofoc.org/2017/11/irvine-city-council-votes-to-sue-county-over-big-commercial-development-near-great-park/#commentsWed, 15 Nov 2017 12:43:27 +0000https://voiceofoc.org/?p=429943The Irvine City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to sue the County of Orange over a huge development plan on 108 acres south of the Great Park, hours after the Board of Supervisors moved forward with the project.

“They’re going with an ill-conceived project and we’re not going to let it go without a challenge because it’s not consistent with what we want to do,” Mayor Don Wagner said in a Tuesday night phone interview. “We got lots of problems.”

The massive project would create up to one million square feet of office space, 2,100 homes, 200,000 square feet of retail space, and a 242-room hotel.

Councilman Jeff Lalloway said the County is violating an agreement created in 2003 when it transferred the Great Park land to Irvine, but kept the 108 acres south of the park. He said any housing, office or retail development was never in the agreement.

“It’s for government and institutional type uses. That’s what the annexation (agreement) allows for specifically. And they’re certainly stretching the meaning of ‘government uses’ by building a hotel and residential apartments and commercial development, too,” said Lalloway in a Tuesday night phone interview.

Wagner said the plans undermine the city’s efforts to control traffic and threatens development in the Great Park because the project will produce even more traffic in the city.

It’s going to delay projects in the area, “including the Cultural Terrace (in the Great Park). The scope of the project that they are talking about far exceeds anything that can reasonably go on that land, far exceeds anything that can reasonably be accommodated on that land. It jeopardizes our control of traffic … it’s just a bad idea,” Wagner said.

Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to approve the project’s environmental impact report and authorize leasing the land for the development. Supervisor Todd Spitzer opposed the project.

In voting against it, Spitzer said he believed the County was violating state law, would get sued, and likely lose – with taxpayers having to pay the legal bills of both the county and those who sue.

Typically land developments have to be approved by the city they’re in -- Irvine, in this case -- but the County says it’s exempt under a doctrine called “sovereign immunity,” in which counties don’t need city permission to change the use of county land.

But Spitzer cited a 1975 appeals court ruling that agencies can lose their immunity if the development is for commercial purposes -- and thus be subject to the local zoning authority of the city, which in this case is a city that intensely opposes the proposed project.

A county lawyer, Thomas “Matt” Miller, replied that Irvine had agreed to give up zoning authority over the land in the 2003 contract with the county, called a “pre-annexation agreement.” The agreement specifies the county can use the land as it sees fit, Miller said.

But Spitzer said that argument would fall flat in court because commercial development wasn’t included in the list of county land uses envisioned in the agreement.

“No rational judge would think that private development through a private entity was contemplated” in the 2003 agreement, Spitzer said.

Supervisor Shawn Nelson disagreed, saying the agreement’s list of uses says the County is not limited to those uses. He said Spitzer had a "fantasy that the uses were limited to municipal uses.”

Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, meanwhile, said the project will bring a revenue stream to the county that will enhance its ability to provide public services.

“This is just the maximum development,” Bartlett said of what was studied in the environmental report. “It could still be scaled down and changed” in the future.

However, Irvine Councilwoman Christina Shea said, in a Thursday night phone interview, the County shouldn’t be in the development business.

“In our opinion the County of Orange should not be in the business of retail and residential and building a very dense and very aggressive complex over there near the Great Park,” Shea said. “They should be in the business of taking care of the homeless, which is a very high priority in the county … those four supervisors have stepped way over the line on this.”

Leading up to the County’s decision, several city governments and nonprofit groups sent letters opposing the county’s environmental analysis for the project, with several alleging the county underestimated the number of car trips -- and thus traffic congestion -- the project would create.

Opposing the environmental analysis in letters were the city of Irvine; the Great Park developer FivePoint Communities; the Orange County Transportation Authority; Caltrans; city of Laguna Beach; Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks; the union Unite Here Local 11; the conservation advocacy group Laguna Greenbelt; the Orange County Food Access Coalition; and Second Harvest Food Bank, whose attorney wrote a letter alleging the environmental report violates several state laws related to planning, zoning and environmental impacts.

Both Lalloway and Shea said some of the groups who sent letters will file similar lawsuits against the County.

“It’s our belief there will be others to sue. Possibly the developers -- Fivepoint and the Irvine Company -- Second harvest food bank, OCTA, Laguna Beach ... there’s a number of entities involved who may or may not bring lawsuits,” Lalloway said.

Wagner said the city had been talking with the County about their concerns.

“It’s very disappointing, very unfortunate they would do this … We were having talks with the County. I thought we were on the right track,” Wagner said.

Meanwhile, Shea said the city is going to fight the plans with everything its got.

“We’re going to do everything we can to defend our city, to defend from the huge increase of traffic they’re going to bring to the city. All five of us are on board, all in agreement that this is not a good plan … if it takes us two to three years, we’re going to spend the money to do it.”

Nick Gerda covers county government and Santa Ana for Voice of OC. You can contact him at ngerda@voiceofoc.org

Spencer Custodio is a Voice of OC reporter who covers south Orange County and Fullerton. You can reach him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org